Stupid men are often capable of things the clever would not dare to contemplate.

Carpe Jugulum," read Agnes aloud. "That's... well, Carpe Diem is 'Sieze the Day,' so this means-" "Go for the throat

It doesn't stop being magic just because you know how it works.

Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don't find out til too late that he's been playing with two queens all along.

Next comes the realist phase ("After all, from a purely geometrical point of view a cat is only a tube with a door at the top.")

The thing about secrets is that they are usually best kept by just one person. That was the special thing about secrets. Some people seemed to think that the best way to keep a secret was to tell as many people as possible; what could possibly go wrong for a secret when there were so many people defending it?

Polly felt questing eyes boring into her. She was embarrassed, of course. But not for the obvious reason. It was for the other one, the little lesson that life sometimes rams home with a stick: you are not the only one watching the world. Other people are people; while you watch them they watch you, and they think about you while you think about them. The world isn’t just about you.